Staff

Tessa Holtzman

Legal Assistant

Tessa joined GLAD in June 2017 after graduating from Bates College with a B.A. in Institutional Politics and a minor in Spanish. While at Bates, Tessa interned with the ACLU where she researched the barriers experienced by survivors of domestic violence who were applying for U.S. visas. She also interned with U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich where she worked to help draft information-technology legislation to serve Native American communities. She served as president of the Bates’ world-renowned debate team and won the North American Women and Gender Minority debating championships in 2017. Tessa’s senior honors thesis studied the impact of political institutions on historically marginalized groups, focusing specifically on indigenous political participation in Bolivia. She also started the first high school debate team in Bolivia and is a youth board member of an anti-domestic violence NGO working in Bolivia. Tessa is excited to be starting her career in public policy and legal advocacy at GLAD.